This invention relates to an animal chew toy for carnivorous animals and a method for making the animal chew toy. More particularly, this invention relates to a rawhide animal chew toy primarily for dogs that is safe and entertaining, and that satisfies their instinctive need to chew.
Carnivorous animals, primarily dogs, have a basic instinctive urge to chew. Chew toys have been used for many years to channel that instinctive urge to chew in a healthy direction and provide them with exercise for their jaws. xe2x80x9cChew toysxe2x80x9d are intended to be chewed by a dog for an extended period of time, and should be distinguished from xe2x80x9ctreatsxe2x80x9d which are intended to be chewed by a dog for a relatively short period of time and then digested. Chew toys typically fall within two distinct categories: (i) those consisting of synthetic materials, and (ii) those consisting, at least in part, of animal skin, animal parts or the like. However, as explained below, existing chew toys have various disadvantages making them unsatisfactory in many instances.
Prior chew toys have been manufactured utilizing rubber, polyurethane, latex, nylon, other plastics, and other types of synthetic material. While chew toys consisting of these synthetic materials may be long lasting and resistant to disintegration, they are typically hard, odorless and tasteless. Most dogs do not get excited about these chew toys because of their odorless and tasteless aspects. Accordingly, many dogs will not chew on these toys or will only chew on these toys for short periods of time even when the toy is bone shaped. Further, the synthetic nature of these chew toys makes them difficult and dangerous to digest. Small pieces of these chew toys which tend to break off can potentially cause digestive dangers to the animals. Additionally, these chew toys are generally not biodegradable and are therefore bad for the environment.
Chew toys have also been comprised of portions of deceased animals. Of these types of chew toys, rawhide is a commonly used material. Rawhide chew toys include rolled rawhide sheets, or rolled and knotted rawhide sheets. Rawhide toys are more appealing to dogs and easier to chew and digest than synthetic chew toys. However, many dogs find these rawhide chew toys lacking of substantial flavor and odor. Accordingly, many dogs become bored with these rawhide chew toys and will at most only chew on them for short periods of time.
Some manufacturers have coated or basted the rawhide chew toys with various flavors to provide additional odor or flavor and entice dogs to chew longer. For example, some rawhide chew toys are basted in a hickory-flavored marinade to enhance their flavor and odor. Other rawhide chew toys have been coated in a cheese-flavored substance. However, these basted and coated chew toys are disadvantageous for many pet owners as they can stain carpets and other items in a home. Further, these coated and basted chew toys are undesirable for many pet owners because they become malodorous to humans.
Chew toys have also been formed of rawhide pieces. These chew toys are sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cmunchies.xe2x80x9d One method of making a chew toy is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,069 to Axelrod. Axelrod discloses rawhide comminuted or chopped into small particles. The rawhide particles can be mixed with casein and gelatin to facilitate molding, and other additives may be added as an attempt to make the chew toy more nutritious and attractive to a dog. The mixture is then molded into a variety of shapes including bone shaped. One problem with the chew toy of Axelrod, is that it does not effectively entice and capture a dog""s curiosity for a long period of time. This problem occurs because any attractiveness additive is dispersed throughout the molded chew toy such that further chewing does not reveal further benefit.
The munchy disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,929 to Lehn et al., suffers from a similar problem. In Lehn et al., a mixture of ground rawhide, starch and flavoring additive is extruded to form an elongate munchy. The flavoring additive can be fishmeal or synthetic flavoring such as chicken, chocolate or beef flavor, and is dispersed throughout the mixture. However, a dog""s natural curiosity is not aroused since further chewing does not increase the flavor or aroma, nor does further chewing visually reveal anything new. Similar, to Axelrod""s chew toy, the munchy of Lehn et al. does not capture a dog""s curiosity for a long period of time.
Natural bones that have hard exteriors and bone marrow in an inside cavity can capture a dog""s attention. A dog will spend a lot of time biting and licking a natural bone attempting to extract all of the marrow from an inside cavity of the bone. The interior marrow creates a visual and olfactory puzzle that a dog will spend hours trying to solve; that is, how to get the marrow out. The problem is that there are several hazards to natural bones. First, natural bones can carry bacterial or other pathological diseases that can be harmful to dogs and humans. Second, natural bones can fracture into shards that are dangerous for a dog to swallow. Third, natural bones are too hard for mature healthy dogs to safely chew, and even more so for puppies with new teeth, dogs that have weak or injured jaws, and older dogs to safely chew. Fourth, natural bones have fatty oils that can stain and damage household carpeting and other items in a home, still further the smell can be too strong for inside of a home.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,653 to Sherrill discloses a chew toy for animals, including a jerky member wrapped in a rawhide sheet member. However, rawhide sheet members also can be hard and therefore difficult to chew for puppies, older dogs, and dogs that have weak or injured jaws.
Accordingly, a chew toy that overcomes the problems and disadvantages of the prior art is thus needed.
It is an objective of the present invention to create a chew toy for carnivorous animals, e.g., domestic dogs, which overcomes the drawbacks of existing chew toys.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a chew toy made of rawhide bits which entices a dog""s curiosity and enhances a dog""s desire to chew for extended periods of time.
It is an objective of the present invention to combine the individual advantages of jerky and rawhide bits in a single chew toy to provide a improved chew toy, which satisfies a dog""s curiosity and instinctive urge to chew.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a chew toy, which is biodegradable and safely ingested by dogs.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a chew toy that is safe for older dogs, dogs with weak jaws, and young dogs with relatively new teeth.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a chew toy for dogs, which need not be coated or basted with flavor and thus does not stain carpets or household articles.
It is an objective to recycle rawhide off-cuts and tailings from rawhide products or rawhide product manufacturing for use in chew toys of the present invention.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a chew toy with a high content of rawhide bits tending to reduce tartar on the teeth of the dogs chewing the toy.
In one aspect of the present invention, a chew toy for domestic carnivorous animals is comprised of rawhide bits mixed with a bonding agent and/or adherent to form a homogenous composite or granulate rawhide paste, and a distinct flavor part.
In a further aspect, the chew toy of the present invention includes a homogenous composite or granulate rawhide paste encompassing or encasing a flavor member that provides an enticing flavor and aroma.
In yet a further aspect, the flavor member is elongate and can extend in a wick like or cantilever manner from the granulate rawhide paste or homogenous composite. The flavor member can be a slice of meat, fillet of meat, bacon or the like, and/or more preferably jerky.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a chew toy for carnivorous animals includes rawhide bits and a bonding agent and/or adherent, which is interspersed with flavor chunks. The flavor chunks can be chunks of meat, chunks of bacon or fillet, or more preferably chunks of jerky.
In a further aspect of the present invention, a chew toy includes granulate rawhide paste or homogenous composite having interspersed flavor chunks and an elongate flavor member.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the chew toy includes coloring, flavor, vitamins, minerals, and/or other health affecting matter.
In a another aspect of the present invention, the chew toy has a high gelatinous content for providing a flexible and rubbery like chew toy that is deformable into knots for example and softer to chew in comparison to high rawhide content chew toys.
In another aspect of the present invention, the flavor member and/or flavor chunks have textures that serve to frictionally hold them within the granulate rawhide paste and/or homogenous composite, which may also have a texture for frictionally engaging the flavor member or chunks.
In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a method of forming a chew toy for carnivorous animals. The method includes the steps of providing bits of rawhide, mixing the bits of rawhide with a bonding agent and/or adherent, providing an flavor member, and forming the rawhide mixture (referred to above as a xe2x80x9cgranulate rawhide pastexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9chomogenous compositexe2x80x9d) around the flavor member.
A further aspect of the method of forming a chew toy includes placing the flavor member so that a portion extends freely exterior the rawhide bit mixture. In yet another step, the providing a flavor member step includes providing an elongate flavor member.
In another aspect of the method of forming a chew toy, the forming of the rawhide mixture includes filling a first mold half, filling a second mold half, placing the flavor member on one of the filled mold halves, compressing the mold halves together thereby sandwiching the flavor member, and then baking or otherwise drying.
In another aspect, the present invention includes another method of forming a chew toy for animals. The method includes the steps of providing bits of rawhide, mixing the bits of rawhide with a bonding agent and/or adherent to form a rawhide bit mixture, interspersing a plurality of flavor chunks and forming the mixture into a shaped chew toy.
In a further aspect, the present invention includes the method step extruding the rawhide bit mixture with interspersed flavor chunks into the shaped chew toy.
In a further aspect, another method step for forming the chew toy includes providing an elongate flavor member, encasing or encompassing the elongate flavor member with the rawhide bit mixture and interspersed flavor chunks. In a further aspect, the elongate flavor member is positioned so that a portion of the elongate flavor member extends freely in a wick-like or cantilever manner.